It’s showtime
The nation’s largest celebration of outdoors recreation is even bigger this year. The 15th annual Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo next weekend in Austin is expected to attract up to 45,000 people, about 9,000 more than last year and more than six times the crowd of 7,000 for the first Expo in 1992, said Tom Harvey, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman. Attendance, however, isn’t the only thing that has grown at the free Expo. Several new events have been added, providing almost any outdoors activity a person might want. The Expo originated as an event to celebrate the role hunters play in conservation but over the years has added other shooting sports, fishing, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing, camping and hiking. Chuck Nash, then the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission chairman, “believed we should do something to promote hunting and wildlife conservation,” Harvey said. “The Expo started out …